UMH - ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Course

Code: 2312

Degree: Bachelor's in Agro-Food and Agro-Environmental Engineering

School of Engineering of Orihuela

Year: Year 2 of Bachelor's in Agro-Food and Agro-Environmental Engineering

Semester: Fall

Type: Required

Language: Spanish

ECTS credits: 4.5

Lecture: 3

Laboratory: 1.5

Hours: 112.5

Directed: 45

Shared: 23

Autonomous: 44.5

Subject matter: Environmental and Landscape Engineering

Module: Required Common Contents

Department: Engineering

Area: AGRONOMIC ENGINEERING

Course instructors are responsible for the course content descriptions in English.

Description

Structure of ecosystems and organizational levels that compose them (individuals, populations, communities), its operation, components, and interactions. Mutual influence between environmental factors and the structure and function of ecosystems. Measurement techniques and evaluation of environmental impact. Analyze the consequences of environmental pollution at different levels of biological organization. Environmental impact assessment methods.

Faculty

Name	Coordinator	Lecture	Laboratory
BERNAL ALARCON, FRANCISCO	■	■	■
SANCHEZ ZAPATA, JOSE ANTONIO		■	■
BOTELLA ROBLES, FRANCISCO		■	■

Professional interest

Designing and managing infrastructure and other agricultural activities with the environmental component as one among the components or bases of engineering.
Conduct or participate in consultations and in drafting environmental documents necessary for the processing of works and activities.

Competencies and learning outcomes

General competencies

Knowledge of technical, scientific, and technological subjects to enable learning new methods and technologies, as well as endowing the student with great versatility for adapting to new situations.
Ability to develop projects within the field.
Capacity for continuous improvement, experimentation, and innovation.
Creativity and imagination within the field of engineering and architecture.
Capacity to evaluate, optimize, and compare criteria in decision making.
Capacity to write, represent, analyze, and interpret technical documentation and data relevant to engineering and architecture.
Ability to prepare reports and expert opinions based on critical analysis of realities in the field of engineering.
Ability to communicate and convey knowledge between expert and non-expert environments.
Capacity to update knowledge independently with a constant willingness to do so.
Capacity for planning, design, drafting, and signing projects in construction, remodeling, repair, conservation, demolition, manufacturing, installation, assembly, and the exploitation of moveable and immovable goods and property that due their nature and features are included within the very techniques of agricultural and farm production (installations and buildings, farms, infrastructure, rural roads), the agro-food industry (extractive, fermentation, dairy, canning, fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, salted fish industries, and in general, any other dedicated to the preparation and/or processing, conservation, handling, distribution of food products), and gardening and landscaping (urban and/or rural green spaces, parks, gardens, greenhouses, urban forest, etc., public and private sporting installations, environments undergoing landscape recovery).
Adequate knowledge of the physical problems, technologies, equipment, and water and energy supply systems, the limits imposed by budgetary factors and building regulations, the relationships between installations and/or buildings with farms, agro-food industries, and spaces related to gardening and landscaping with their social and environmental surroundings, as well as the need to relate those from that environment with human needs and environmental protection.
Capacity to draft and sign measurements, segregations, subdivisions, appraisals and assessments within rural areas, techniques belonging to the agri-food industry and the spaces related to gardening and landscaping, regardless whether they possess expert reports for legal or governmental bodies or not, and independently of the use for which this moveable or immovable good and property is destined for.
Ability to draft and sign studies of rural development, environmental impact, and waste management for agri-food industries, farms and ranches, and for spaces related to gardening and landscaping.
Knowledge of basic, scientific, and technological matters that enable continuous learning, as well as a capacity to adapt to new situations and changing environments.
Ability to solve problems with creativity, initiative, methodology, and critical thinking.
Leadership, communication, and transmission of knowledge, skills, and abilities in social fields of action.
Ability to search for and use the rules and regulations relative to the field of action.
Ability to develop activities, assuming a social, ethical, and environmental commitment in tune with the reality of the human and natural environments.
Capacity to work on multidisciplinary and multicultural teams.

Specific competencies

Ability to recognize, understand, and utilize ecological principles. Environmental impact study: assessment and correction.
Ability to recognize, understand, and utilize the principles of the management and use of agro-industrial byproducts.
Ability to recognize, understand, and utilize the principles of decision making with the resources available for work in multidisciplinary groups.
Ability to recognize, comprehend, and utilize the principles of technology transfer; understand, interpret, communicate, and adopt advances in the field of agriculture.
Ability to recognize, understand, and utilize the principles of agricultural and landscape engineering.
Ability to recognize, understand, and utilize the principles of hydrology; erosion; plant material production, use, and maintenance; ecosystems and biodiversity; physical environment and climate change. Analysis, management, and land use planning. Landscaping principles. Specific design and graphic expression tools; practical development of environmental impact studies; environmental and landscaping restoration projects. Projects and maintenance plans for green spaces. Development projects. Tools for spatial and landscape planning. Projects and works management and planning.

Objectives (Learning outcomes)

01Knowing the sources of pollution phenomena and relationship to natural factors
02Knowledge of current legislation on Environmental Impact Assessment, to understand its national structure and the scope of the CCAA and suitability for your search query and interpretation
03Knowledge of the procedure of environmental impact assessment in Spain.
04Ability to identify impacts of the implementation of projects and analysis.
05Training for conducting an environmental impact assessment study and other preliminary report contained in the procedure of environmental impact in all its forms.
06Acquiring analytical skills of all environmental issues and ability to interpret these against the administrative procedures.
07Interpreting the habitats and to understand the influence of environmental factors on these.

Teaching units

Association between objectives and units

Objective/Unit	U1	U2	U3
01
02
03
04
05
06
07

Schedule

Week	Teaching units	Directed hours	Shared hours	Autonomous hours	Total hours
1	U1	3	0	1	4
2	U1	3	0	2	5
3	U1	3	0	2	5
4	U2	3	1	2	6
5	U2	3	1	2	6
6	U2	3	1	2.5	6.5
7	U2	3	2	3	8
8	U3	3	2	3	8
9	U3	3	2	3	8
10	U3	3	2	4	9
11	U3	3	3	4	10
12	U3	3	3	4	10
13	U3	3	2	4	9
14	U3	3	2	4	9
15	U3	3	2	4	9

Basic bibliography

Complementary bibliography

Methodology and grading

Methodology

Case studies: Learning through the analysis of actual or simulated cases in order to interpret and resolve them by employing various alternative solution procedures.
Lecture: Pass on knowledge and activate cognitive processes in students, encouraging their participation.
Problem-based learning: Develop active learning strategies through problem solving that promote thinking, experimentation, and decision making in the student.
Project-based learning: Realization of a project to solve a problem, applying acquired learning and promoting abilities related to planning, design, performing activities, and reaching conclusions.
Solving exercises and problems: Exercise, test, and apply previous knowledge through routine repetition.

Grading

The course will be evaluated through a single classroom exam, consisting in solving questions enumeration, identification, conceptual definitions and practical applications on the agenda developed in the classroom and practice 70%.
And valuing of the work presented in class by the student can be individually or in groups 30%

Assessment test characteristics

The final exam will be of the short questions type in approximate number of 10. All the questions score the same.

The exam will last approximately 2 hours.

Faculty: ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT